Just a few notes here from the talk I heard yesterday given by Dr.Levitin.
the talk kinda started with Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven snippet ... either I wasn't tuned in yet or there was quick re-route, because I had time to smile at an old favorite song,but no reference was heard as to why that ... I don't like the beginnings of lectures anyway, with the crowd of silent strangers the room still feels awkward to me.
What an excellent speaker though - really wow.
Musical expertise
Musical preferences
Neuro connections
magisteria
Sapolsky - the guy (okay smart guy - whose work I admire) I mentioned bc of Primate research ... stress loads.
Woody Phillips - toolbox classic
exquisitely sensitive - howperfectisthat?!
Musical expertise may be encoded, carried on, a gene with other primary purpose
This is what I understood, but definitely needs verification ... a gene ... I will randomly name a gene - the sociability gene ... named so without knowledge of "in fact ... yes ... there is a social gene" . A gene may also carry code predisposing one to "like" music. Stated - 10% of population does not like music - discovered in blind polling. My husband does not like music ... he was unable to attend this lecture (though he wanted to) ... when I caught up with him afterwards I told him there is some developing support for the idea that a percentage of the population does not like music ... he loves it when I use math words ... I told him those same people are typically antisocial preferring to view "The Big Bang Theory" alone lest they laugh out loud, and may develop hair on their backs late in life ... he laughed.
People who are successful in their areas have these traits in common:
Memory (superior memory in their domain)
Attention
Willpower { will power and belief in self have a genetic underpinning (thanks Dad)}
Belief in Self
Multiple Failures
Flow State is a feature of expertise ... briefly cited Outliers - the book both Husband and One are recommending ... maybe I'll read it on Spring Break.
Dr.L made this observation, I paraphrase: their (successful people) stories are about their failures, and they fail often ... seeing failure as an opportunity to learn, rather then personal defeat. different attitude.
Next a little on the neuroanatomy of music by now we are running out of time I suspect. I'm interested enough and will likely prefer reading about it. He has ... looks like three books ... several ... tons of papers ... as I said in an earlier post , a couple of documentaries and next road trip, I'll look for some podcast, just not right now.
Music engages more areas of the brain then any other activity. This may explain why I find music so comforting in ... times when comfort helps. This is one of my favorite ideas from this lecture:
Emotions are jumbled ...
Words have trouble untangling them ...where music gets it very fast.
I think that is part of the answer to why some people do, and some people don't, like music. People ave very different tolerance levels for emotion. I tell my kids to make an extended road trip with people they think might become important to them relationship wise ... maybe it is just a matter of sitting in a room together with Pandora ... ah, if life were only so simple!
on his own track, he says something like this - fortunate to know which questions to ask ...what is empirically interesting ... important to advance some theory.
Impromptu musicality = deactivation of the editor part of their brain. I'm thinking about flow again here. That is how I sing the old hymns at church ... certain I have more then the prerequisite 10000 of intentional vocalizing.
Music as a metaphor ... music as a reflection of self image. Why do we like what we like? (Beats me, and I do wonder ... and maybe even feel a little weird to enthusiastically enjoy so many different genre)
Unknown, but emerging; maybe music and color preferences go together. (Hmmm)
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